Often when you travel alone, people ask, "do you get lonely?" Fortunately, the fact that people think you must be so lonely is what makes life more interesting for the independent visitor. For some reason, people take pity in you, or maybe they just find you more approachable, so that you never really feel alone. Even better, when you meet another solo tourist, friendship comes easily. Case in point: my friend Nikolai, born Belgian, but living in the French Alps. He was two days into a six day journey down the Nam Ou river when I met him, and within ten minutes he had invited me to join him for the remaining four. Our trusty craft (the one on the right, full of water) had some leakage issues, but nothing that couldn't be fixed with a little scooping.
Another nice thing about pairing up with another person is that they bring a different perspective and approach, usually beneficial. Nikolai, for example, likes to move very slowly, painfully slowly for some, but for me it was just perfect. Although we only covered some 250 km together, we stayed in bungalows, villages, and camped on an island, all things I never would have imagined before meeting him.
During our trip we confronted rain and blistering sun, but we were also treated to some of the best views of Laos: massive karst (the vertical sugarloaf peaks), pure primary jungle, and the friendliest fishing villages in Laos (one girl even proclaimed her love for Nikolai as we floated by, although her sincerity might be questionable). Camping on the island, we were treated to the sounds of birds, bugs and monkeys living in the adjacent jungle, and in the morning we were rewarded with butterflies, which would accompany us all the way back to Luang Prabang (which must be some kind of good omen). By the last day, we felt like quite the adventurers, deserving of some kind of welcoming party, or at least a feast. Both came in their own forms, maybe not quite as we had anticipated. Most importantly, we slept very well that night.
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